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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

OMG! My first world problems...

I am dating this post because sometimes when I write and when it actually post (do to crazy wifi) is two totally different times!

So, I am writing this 12/29/14 - on Monday night and some on 12/30/14 Tuesday night! I am ahead of my people in Louisiana by 9 hrs or 8 hrs - well I don't quite know I am still confused and disoriented by the smell of BO.

First, let me start off - I re read my first post and let me apologize for all my misspellings and bad grammar! If my former English teacher is reading this - I am just writing from my heart and skipping the grammar while in Africa! Lol! Plus my iPad isn't working for some reason so I am blogging from my iPhone (and that is getting a little hard!)

But, everyone back home who have commented or sent me messages - thank you! I will just keep pecking away at my little keyboard on my phone - just thumbing away all for y'all!

So, I have arrived tonight in entebbe, Uganda! Entebbe is where the international airport for Uganda is. I really can't quite believe I have made it and I don't think it has set in just yet - I AM IN AFRICA - people!!! Africa!! There are like 2 white people in this hotel right now - me and my friend!! I know how you minorities feel - I know how ya feel now! Everyone is looking at me - with these really serious eyes - like I am an ailen and from another planet! Which I am from a mosquito biting, hot as heck bayou town too - which is a lot like what I am experiencing right now!! But, then it dawned on me - "Vera every person in this building looks almost exactly alike - dark skin, bright white teeth, dark hair, black eyes - and then there is me - with my big blue ailen looking eyes - I guess so they looking!"

So when I write - of course I will be serious sometimes but I got some first world problems and right now the only way for me to get through it is to 1. Laugh at myself and add a little humor 2. Pray, pray and pray!! 3. Just be real - I am not making the next few paragraphs up!! After, these post if you are still interested in a possible trip to Africa - message me! Lol!

So back to my arrival and tonight's sleeping conditions! Ok. Well we arrived in the airport very late, so our taxi driver got us straight to the hotel and then we were in our rooms in no time. Also, I might add - the Uganda healthcare workers are standing at every gate - checking for Ebola and getting temperatures (FYI - Ebola is on the other side of Africa - not any where close to here!!) Now mind you - I had just left a first world country (the Netherlands) and it was freezing there and I arrived in a third world country on the equator! I am a southern girl, so I was bundled up bc I can't take the cold to save my life and the next thing you know I am walking into an airport with NO AC!!! Plus I was already nervous and anxious and then I began to sweat! And I felt myself getting hotter and hotter! So I took off my jacket, took my belt off, and was about to take the scarf off and next thing you knew the healthcare worker was taking my temperature - I thought to myself "Vera if you don't stop sweating you will break out in a fever and you will be contained at the entebbe airport and have to wave goodbye to your friends and everyone will see you on the news!" Ahhh then I started sweating more and then I saw bugs and then I couldn't stop itching!! It was a hot mess for me and thankfully y'all prayers are working and I had no fever!!

Ok back to the orginial point of the post - sorry a little ADD right now - so many experiences! So, we are spending the night at the central inn in entebbe, Uganda before we head out tomorrow! The center inn was recommended to us by a friend who has previously stayed here and stated it was really nice! So, here is what the outside of the hotel looks like! This is very nice for Uganda standards.

But, I told ya I have a few first world problems. Currently, I am typing while I lay in a mosquito net all around me with small little bugs flying above my head!! Here are the pictures to prove it bc I knew you wouldn't believe me!!

Our rooms were nice for given some of the living conditions in this part of the world! But, the bugs were still there!

So, naturally because of the bugs above me - I can't fall asleep! And then I start thinking and thinking - and praying and praying. Then I have the thought - "I miss the pleasures of America already!!" Did I mention that I am sticky, itching like I have the chicken pox, and I have no ac for the next two weeks! And lots of bugs! I mean I am embarrassed to say I miss America already! And haunte that I am so dependent on the American pleasures - that we have some how convinced ourseleves it is all necessary (and I am not referring to AC - that is necessary in louisiana!) Just to actually have working wifi for longer than 3 minutes, cell phone service, and direct connection to anyone and everyone whenever you want!! That is such a luxury - I am feeling that already and I haven't even been here for 24 hrs (lawd help me!!) I just wish I could pack up some of those teenagers in America and place them in this country for two weeks! They would have a whole new perspective! Hey - wouldn't this be a good idea - create a summer camp - where it would be boot camp Africa for spoiled American teens! (Ok that is another post!)

(They would have to use phones like this! Lol! I had to buy this Nokia today to make international phone calls when I leave the place I am staying at and travel into deeper villages in Africa and don't have wifi!) Let's all take a moment us spoiled Americans - when is the last time you used a Nokia?! I must confess I had a red Nokia back in 2001 my freshmen year of college!! Y'all we are blessed with technology!! I asked if they had apple phones around - the sales man said yes but definitely none in his store! Maybe in the larger capital city - Kampala! But, I didn't see any in jinga today!

What I am really thinking about tonight as my mind races and I go from praying to thinking to crying and so on...is my children - god I miss them so much and it's only been 5 days that I have been gone! It seems like a lifetime people! But, the heart of the matter is what god laid on my heart as I was complaining in my head about my sleeping conditions! My spoiled American children are so blessed. I can't wait until they can really, really understand that. They will each lay in a comfortable bed tonight, get good night kisses and hugs from their awesome dad, have taken a bath in clean water, dressed in nice fresh pjs, and sleep with a parent just right down the hall (or maybe even in the same bed - since mommy is gone!) as I am thinking this god whispers to me - WHAT WILL TONIGHT BE LIKE FOR THE ORPHAN?

I thought - "God I can't even imagine how scary that must be." To rest where ever you fall, on dirt floor possibly, dirty clothes, no parent around to comfort them or give them love, what if they are sick or hungry, and for heaven sakes they are in complete darkness because they have no electricity! And I miss wifi?!? Oh heaven I need to be here. This is just where I need to be. In my mosquito net, sticky, itchy, with no AC self! That's just what I need!

Always remember...what you are complaining about tonight...someone is praying for. Tonight I was complaining about my sleeping quarters and tonight the orphan is praying for just a bed to sleep in.

Thanks for coming along this journey with me! Hope I made you laugh a little! But, in all seriousness - God is going to do a great work this trip and I am really just a vessel for him.

Tomorrow 12/30 I take a 3 hr ride to Jinga and will be there the rest of the week!! We have some exciting work in store and I just can't wait to share!

2 comments:

Vera, you did make me laugh, and I forgive you for all your misspellings and incorrect grammar! ;) I didn't comment on your Amsterdam post because I read it this morning and then had to leave for NOLA. Made me wish I could go back there. I so admire you for what you are doing and am looking forward to reading your future posts. <3

How profound, that what we complain about something that someone else is praying for. Thank you God for all my blessings. I think your boot camp idea is great. Lol. Too much taken for granted here in the US from "toys", comforts, and more importantly, the love of our families. Will continue to pray for many blessings for the orphans and the manifestation of Gods work through all of you. Will be looking forward to the next post....typos and all. Love ya !